rhipe Extends SMB Data Protection as Backup365 ANZ distributor
At rhipe, our team of CSP experts are dedicated to bringing you all the relevant updates from Microsoft each month. We do the heavy lifting so that you can concentrate on what you well.
Please find below links directly to all the latest news and updates. If there is something that you want covered, please reach out to one of the CSP team at rhipe and we will endeavour to cater to your needs.
Don’t forget to register for the rhipe CSP Monthly Webinar.
Table of Contents:
Microsoft 365 Business Voice without calling plan coming to Australia
VPN support for Hybrid Azure AD windows autopilot devices
The Exchange Online PowerShell v2 module is now generally available
M365 Information Governance: Retention improvements for SharePoint Online and OneDrive
100 GB File Size for OneDrive and SharePoint
Microsoft to extend security for all with mobile protection for Android
Safe Documents is now generally available
(Reminder)Microsoft Partner Agreement Update
Updates to Microsoft 365 F1
Microsoft has updated Microsoft 365 F1 with new services. From July 2020, this will be released in the rhipe PRISM portal and replace the previous Microsoft 365 F1 in CSP pricelist.
Enhancements are being made by adding support for new services: Exchange Kiosk and MS Search capabilities. The addition of Exchange Online Kiosk to Microsoft 365 F1 addresses current technical issues with personal calendaring and meetings in Teams. If a Microsoft 365 F1 user needs Exchange/email, a standalone Exchange Online plan should be purchased and assigned to the user.
The original F1 offers will be replaced on June 15 with the new F1 offers (below) for new subscription purchases.
| Offer name | Offer ID |
| Microsoft 365 F1 | 17b4a1d6-2c65-478e-a046-51cf40d25d76 |
Partners with the current Microsoft 365 F1 product do not need to do anything. Service plans for Exchange Kiosk and MS Search will be backfilled by the end of June on their existing service plans.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice without calling plan coming to Australia
Microsoft introduced Microsoft 365 Business Voice to additional geographies in APAC in April 2020, but its availability in Australia was delayed. In the Microsoft Australia Strategy Lift-off session, Microsoft confirmed that Microsoft 365 Business Voice without Calling plan will be available for ordering for Australian customers from July 1st 2020.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice is a cloud-based phone system for businesses of up to 300 users that provides the ability to make and receive calls from any phone number in Microsoft Teams. Together with Teams, it delivers an all-in-one communication solution combining calling, chat and meetings.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice is available as an add-on to the following plans:
- Office 365 Business Essentials, Business Premium, F1, A1, E1, A3, E3
- Microsoft 365 Business, F1, A3, E3
With the new voice plan, end customers who want to have Cloud-based phone system with advanced features including call transfer, multi-level auto attendants and call queues no longer need to upgrade to Enterprise E3 or E5. Instead, they can stay on their current Business plans. This significantly lowers the investment in licences required to acquire ability to call out from Microsoft Teams.
Reach out to your rhipe Account Manager to find out how you can take advantage of this new offering by partnering with rhipe.
For more information:
- Visit Microsoft partner centre gallery to learn more about the value proposition of this offer.
- Learn about the benefits Microsoft 365 Business Voice offers here
- Discover the features of Microsoft 365 Business Voice by reading the service description
VPN support for Hybrid Azure AD windows autopilot devices
If you have been using Windows autopilot for Hybrid AD joined devices then this is a much-awaited feature, recently out of Private preview and is now available as a public preview, for you to try.
Essentially, the admins would be able to configure the “Skip AD connectivity check” (Screenshot below) within the Autopilot deployment profile. This will result in the device receiving VPN settings via Microsoft endpoint manager (Intune) before domain connectivity is established. The user experience would depend upon the VPN configuration and the type of VPN being used. For more detailed information and prerequisites please check the official docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/windows-autopilot/user-driven
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/windows-autopilot/windows-autopilot-whats-new
The Exchange Online PowerShell v2 module is now generally available
The Exchange Online PowerShell v2 module, which connects admins to their Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment to perform fast and highly reliable data retrieval, is now generally available to all Exchange Online environments. The module is now available in the PowerShell Gallery for download.
The EXO V2 module allows you as the Administrator to configure Exchange Online, retrieve data, update or remove existing objects and create new objects with no operational impact or change to your day to day tasks or scripts. It contains all existing remote PowerShell cmdlets as well as nine new (v2) REST-based cmdlets. These new cmdlets are faster and more reliable than their v1 counterparts.
The EXO V2 module uses Modern authentication for all cmdlets. You can't use Basic authentication in the EXO V2 module; however, you still need to configure the Basic authentication setting in WinRM.
Microsoft announced the new Exchange Online management cmdlets at Microsoft Ignite 2019.
For more info, please refer to Microsoft Tech Community Announcement.
M365 Information Governance: Retention improvements for SharePoint Online and OneDrive
Microsoft is improving how Microsoft 365 retention policies and labels work for SharePoint Online and OneDrive. This change will introduce a new retention engine to process these policies aimed at improving scalability and consistency across Microsoft 365 applications.
This update will start to roll out in July 2020 and expected to finish the rollout by August of 2020.
This change should not cause disruption to your customers’ operations. However, if your customers are using retention policies and retention labels in the same SharePoint Online or OneDrive for business location there might be a change of which policy takes precedence and being enforced. Learn more about the principles of retention and what takes precedence here.
100 GB File Size for OneDrive and SharePoint
Microsoft is increasing the maximum file size from 15GB to 100GB for a single file. This change applies to OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online. For best performance, Microsoft recommends uploading very large files using the OneDrive Desktop client.
End users will no longer receive errors when trying to upload a file larger than 15GB, but less than 100GB. This will enable productivity, storage and protection on large files of the organisation.
Microsoft to extend security for all with mobile protection for Android
Microsoft is extending data security outside emails with Microsoft Defender ATP for Android.
As more business is taking place via mobile devices, the lines blur between work and personal life. The threats here are unique. For example, one of the biggest and fastest growing threats on mobile is phishing attacks, majority of which happen outside of email, such as via phishing sites, messaging apps, games and other applications. These are tricky to spot on smaller form factors. Other common mobile threats include malicious applications that users are lured into downloading, as well as increased risk introduced by rooted devices that may allow unnecessary escalated privileges and the installation of unauthorised applications.
Leveraging on existing capabilities, Microsoft Defender ASTP will help protect Microsoft customers and users by delivering:
- Protection from phishingand access to risky domains and URLs through web protection
- Proactive scanning of malicious applications, files and potentially unwanted applications (PUA) that users may download to their mobile devices.
- Adding layers of protectionto help prevent and limit the impact of breaches in an organisation by leveraging tight integration with Microsoft Endpoint Manager and Conditional Access
- A unified security experiencethrough Microsoft Defender Security Centre where defenders can see alerts and easily get the additional context they need to quickly assess and respond to threats across Windows, Mac, Linux, and now mobile devices.
For more information, please refer to the Microsoft blog here.
Safe Documents is now generally available
Microsoft has announced that Safe Documents became publicly available in the month of June. With Safe Documents, users with Microsoft Office Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) are empowered to verify that documents are safe at the endpoint. Safe Documents was generally available mid-June 2020 for customers that are appropriately licensed.
When activated, Safe Documents replaces Protected View. Safe Documents automatically checks documents against known risks and threat profiles before allowing them to open. Users aren’t asked to decide if a document can be trusted; they can simply focus on the work to be done. This seamless connection between the desktop and the cloud simplifies the user workflow and helps keep the network more secure. Each time Safe Documents contains a malicious attack, the entire Intelligent Security Graph becomes stronger, benefiting everyone.
This integration with ATP provides admins with advanced visibility and response capabilities such as:
- Providing alerts, logs and confirmation that a potential attack was contained, and
- Providing visibility into similar threats across the enterprise.
At release, Safe Documents capabilities will ship default Off.
To turn on Safe Documents, open the Security & Compliance tab and go to Threat Management > Policy > ATP Safe Attachments where there will be settings to Turn on Safe Documents for Office clients and to allow users to bypass protections if a file is malicious.
Learn more:
- Building on Secure Productivity
- Safe Documents in Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection
(Reminder) Active Dynamics 365 on-premise customers can renew their Enhancement Plan (EP) through CSP program and receive online licenses
After careful consideration of the current environment and the potential business impact of COVID-19 on Dynamics Price List (DPL) on-premises customers, Microsoft has created an offer enabling existing customers who are active on their EP to renew their EP through the CSP program and receive Dynamics 365 Business Central online licenses. Customers who choose to renew their EP through the CSP-EP renewal offer will receive the following benefits:
- A price point that is equal to the EP renewal quote
- Dual use and downgrade rights to their current on-premises DPL product (Dynamics 365 Business Central, on-premises, Dynamics NAV, Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL)
- A monthly billing option (vs. annual billing for EP)
- Enhancement Plan benefits
- Dynamics 365 Business Central (cloud) licenses for migration to the cloud.
Take note that the CSP-EP renewal offer is a new option for customers to renew their EP. Customers will continue to have the option to annually renew their EP via DPL for their on-premises solution. To account for the challenges that businesses are facing due to the current global health crisis, Microsoft is allowing exceptions for customers who lapsed on their EP between January 1, 2020 and May 31, 2020. They can re-enrol their EP through the CSP-EP renewal offer without penalty but must license the CSP-EP renewal offer by July 31, 2020.
These offers are available through CSP from the June 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.
For more information, please reach out to your Account Manager, who will connect you to a rhipe CSP partner enablement specialist. You can also email us directly at csp@rhipe.com to find out more.
(Reminder) Microsoft Partner Agreement Update
The Microsoft Partner Agreement is a simple, unified and digitally accepted partner agreement framework. It offers concise terms to help partners, customers and Microsoft comply with regulatory requirements, supporting enhanced privacy, security, compliance, and transparency.
All CSP indirect Resellers are required to accept Microsoft Partner Agreement to create new customers or place new orders for existing customers in the CSP program. Partners who have not accepted the Microsoft Partner Agreement will not be able to place new orders and will be limited to managing existing subscriptions only.
As of January 31, 2020, all partners in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Program should have accepted the agreement for all transacting CSP tenants. Microsoft previously communicated that the next phase of implementation for the agreement would begin in April 2020, however, to help prevent any disruption to the business, Microsoft has extended the next phase of implementation beyond April 2020.
What you need to do:
- You must enrol as a CSP indirect reseller before signing the Microsoft Partner Agreement. Please enrol here. Note that having Partner Centre access doesn’t mean that you are automatically enrolled as a CSP indirect reseller
- If you have previously onboarded to Partner Centre as an Indirect Reseller, accept the Microsoft Partner Agreement on the Partner Centre dashboard page using Global Admin credentials.
We have also prepared a step-by-step guide to guide your through the Partner Centre sign up and MPA signing process. Click on the link here to learn more.
More resources are also available at Microsoft CSP resources gallery page.
This rhipe monthly CSP blog is brought to you by the rhipe Marketing team and our CSP Partner Enablement Specialists.
To stay up to date with what’s happening in the Microsoft CSP program, we strongly encourage you register for the live or on demand webinars to engage with Microsoft Subject Matter experts and learn about the latest Microsoft CSP licensing updates:
Register for upcoming webinars here.
If you have any questions, please contact the team through email, Twitter or LinkedIn below.
JY Wong
Microsoft CSP Partner Enablement Specialist
Email: JY.Wong@rhipe.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wongjy/
Mikki Chopra
Cloud Enablement Specialist
Email: Mikki.Chopra@rhipe.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikki-chopra/
Paul Dilag
Partner Enablement Specialist
Email: Paul.Dilag@rhipe.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pdilag/
Alaa Rahal
Cloud Enablement Specialist
Email: Alaa.rahal@rhipe.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaarahal
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